1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to telephone communications and, more particularly, to a novel interactive telephone communication system and method which allow a hearing-impaired person, using a TDD, to send and receive information over a two-way telephone subscriber network without communicating directly with another person.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Two-way telephone systems, which allow national and worldwide communication between individuals, normally provide for reception and output of sound energy. Because of this, a hearing-impaired person was for a long period prevented from communication over this network. In relatively recent years, however, technology has evolved which allows a deaf individual to communicate over the telephone subscriber network. Specifically, teletype/telecommunication devices for the deaf (TDDs) are now readily available, and many public and private organizations have special telephone numbers for hearing-impaired individuals to call which are devoted exclusively to telecommunications using TDD equipment, such as a relay service. A TDD unit conventionally communicates with another TDD unit using specially coded tone signals, e.g., Baudot and like codes. When a Baudot signal is received, the TDD equipment converts the signal into a visual format for display to the hearing-impaired person. In this manner, two hearing-impaired individuals are able to communicate directly using an existing telephone subscriber network as the carrier.
Increasingly, there is a trend in both the public and private sector towards streamlining the handling of incoming telephone calls by the use of pre-recorded interactive voice systems. Verbal interrogation systems, or verbal multiple choice response systems are well known, such as exemplified by the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,256 and the patents cited therein. However, such interactive voice systems obviously terminate communication for a hearing-impaired person. For example, since the deaf person is unable to hear the verbal instructions he cannot route his own call to an appropriate electronic mailbox or extension.
The present system, therefore, is designed to address this deficiency of existing interactive telephone interrogation technology and provide a deaf individual with the same access to automated attendant, "audio" text retrieval, transaction processing, etc., as that now enjoyed by hearing individuals.